Album: Automatic For The People
Artist: REM
Born: Athens, Georgia
Released: October 1992
Genre: Americana
Automatic For The People was an instant classic and one of the first albums I bought on release and got completely immersed in. Everything about it was fascinating to my teenage ears, especially the melancholy mood and the way the music evoked America's vast natural landscapes. As this was the first REM album I'd heard, there was little sense in my mind of the group's progression from releasing early indie rock gems like Murmur and Document (1987) to the more pop-oriented sound of Green (1998) and Out Of Time (1991), a journey that peaked with Automatic For The People. Though I enjoyed their 1996 album, New Adventures In Hi-Fi, in general there was the sense of a falling-off in the quality of REM's musical output after Automatic For The People. Nothing since has ever matched it for songwriting and songcraft, with great touches like the string arrangements by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones on four of the album's successful singles: Drive, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite, Everybody Hurts and Nightswimming. Drive was the lead-off single, released just before the album itself, and became a huge hit in the UK. It's an archetypal REM song, with much that I love (rich, acoustic sound and brilliant guitar work by Peter Buck) and find slightly ridiculous (Stipe's earnest delivery of nonsensical lyrics) about the group. Two of my favourite songs from the record are Man On The Moon and Nightswimming which, along with the stunning Find The River, provide a memorable conclusion to the LP.
Drive and Try Not To Breathe make for a compelling opening to the record, but two songs that haven't aged so well are The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite and Everybody Hurts. The first is memorable for the way it updates The Lion Sleeps Tonight as a pop single and for its misheard main lyric (my wife's younger twin brothers mistook "call me when you try to wake her up" for "concrete Romania"). For me, the most memorable thing about the corny Everybody Hurts was the MTV video, with its brilliant use of subtitles. Sweetness Follows makes for a strong, feedback heavy finish to side 1, but side 2 is when the album really comes to life. Ignoreland is the most political song on the record, featuring superb guitar work from Buck and plenty of overdubs, as well as lyrics that make a direct attack on how the US media manufactures the consent of the voting public ("TV tells a million lies / the paper's terrified to report anything that isn't handed on a presidential spoon"). Star Me Kitten is another great track which, according to Bob Stanley, "blended the exotica of the early Shadows with a bed of voices borrowed from 10cc's I'm Not In Love". Then comes the magnificent closing trio, starting with Andy Kaufman homage Man On The Moon, featuring some of Stipe's best singing and songwriting. Nightswimming is a beautiful ode to a beautiful pastime, skinny dipping, while Find The River has a natural, spiritual feel and stunning harmonies. Despite the album's obsession with mortality and its moody atmosphere, there's still something essentially uplifting about the record.
Automatic For The People was an instant classic and one of the first albums I bought on release and got completely immersed in. Everything about it was fascinating to my teenage ears, especially the melancholy mood and the way the music evoked America's vast natural landscapes. As this was the first REM album I'd heard, there was little sense in my mind of the group's progression from releasing early indie rock gems like Murmur and Document (1987) to the more pop-oriented sound of Green (1998) and Out Of Time (1991), a journey that peaked with Automatic For The People. Though I enjoyed their 1996 album, New Adventures In Hi-Fi, in general there was the sense of a falling-off in the quality of REM's musical output after Automatic For The People. Nothing since has ever matched it for songwriting and songcraft, with great touches like the string arrangements by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones on four of the album's successful singles: Drive, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite, Everybody Hurts and Nightswimming. Drive was the lead-off single, released just before the album itself, and became a huge hit in the UK. It's an archetypal REM song, with much that I love (rich, acoustic sound and brilliant guitar work by Peter Buck) and find slightly ridiculous (Stipe's earnest delivery of nonsensical lyrics) about the group. Two of my favourite songs from the record are Man On The Moon and Nightswimming which, along with the stunning Find The River, provide a memorable conclusion to the LP.
Drive and Try Not To Breathe make for a compelling opening to the record, but two songs that haven't aged so well are The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite and Everybody Hurts. The first is memorable for the way it updates The Lion Sleeps Tonight as a pop single and for its misheard main lyric (my wife's younger twin brothers mistook "call me when you try to wake her up" for "concrete Romania"). For me, the most memorable thing about the corny Everybody Hurts was the MTV video, with its brilliant use of subtitles. Sweetness Follows makes for a strong, feedback heavy finish to side 1, but side 2 is when the album really comes to life. Ignoreland is the most political song on the record, featuring superb guitar work from Buck and plenty of overdubs, as well as lyrics that make a direct attack on how the US media manufactures the consent of the voting public ("TV tells a million lies / the paper's terrified to report anything that isn't handed on a presidential spoon"). Star Me Kitten is another great track which, according to Bob Stanley, "blended the exotica of the early Shadows with a bed of voices borrowed from 10cc's I'm Not In Love". Then comes the magnificent closing trio, starting with Andy Kaufman homage Man On The Moon, featuring some of Stipe's best singing and songwriting. Nightswimming is a beautiful ode to a beautiful pastime, skinny dipping, while Find The River has a natural, spiritual feel and stunning harmonies. Despite the album's obsession with mortality and its moody atmosphere, there's still something essentially uplifting about the record.
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